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Is the PS Vita good enough to bring Augmented Reality mainstream?

I rather quickly wrote off the PlayStation Vita when I first heard about it. Why? It's just another handheld gaming console and I really do believe they face almost impossible odds against mobile phones.

You even have mobile phones that are gaming consoles - like the Xperia.

However, I'll also admit whenever I see any demo (or even trailer footage) for the PS Vita I raise my opinion of it. It's far more powerful than mobile phones are today and it doesn't have quite the same pocket sized concerns.

I've written about augmented reality before on this blog because I see it as a way of bringing the goodness of the internet to the real world. It's something that I watch in my role as Media Innovations Director at bigmouthmedia. In fact, it was only late October that Volkswagen Canda caught my eye with an impressive Beetle AR ad.

Companies like Layar and Blippar are worthy of the interest they attract.

AR is not yet mainstream, though, and it feels like there is a long way to go.

Take a look at this new trailer for the PS Vita and pause to ponder the impact it could have on "casual AR". I would suggest that anything you might see happening down the pub or friends mucking around with together has the potential to go mainstream. Games like FlickBall certainly look like that'll get people playing.

The PS Vita will need more than power in order to perusade people to play AR games. The games themselves will need to be fun. It's certainly a development I look forward to.